“In the 1660’s Rembrandt would arrive at a manner of painting that was itself a kind of outward inward vision, a manner that owed almost as much to touch as sight, and which certainly ran counter to the coming vogue ;-) ...twenty five years earlier he was compulsively experimenting with the techniques and histories that turned on the occlusion and clarification of vision...” ( This refers you to the time when Tobias smears his father’s eyes with fish gall, as instructed by the angel ;-) Raphael who, in the drawing of the scene is made spectrally faint with a light whitewash, as though to emphasis immateriality.) Simon Schama, Rembrandt’s Eyes. Pp 427-428

R

o

se Smelling

Acrylic on Paper

[A3] 11 th October 2004 ( Painted in my cottage garden under the influence of a rose bush;-) “None of this would have happened if it weren't for those sensory circuits in the brain developing their special self-resonance — a development that was pushed along by natural selection for metaphysics. As I once put it (imitating a famous passage of Rousseau): "The first animal who, having enclosed a bit of the world's substance within his skin, said 'This is me' was perhaps the true founder of individualized life. But it was the first animal who, having enclosed a bit of time within his brain, said 'This is my present' who was the true founder of subjective being.“” http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/humphrey04/humphrey04_index.html

All our interior world is reality. And that perhaps more so than our apparent reality

.

Marc Chagall

This little attachment is about visioning. It draws in the thinking works of people like Varela, Humphrey, Scharmer, Schama, Rembrandt, Beuys and my humble self. It also draws on personal contact in Oxford, London, The Hague and Amsterdam as well as various private collections of the work of Rembrandt. In an embodying manner I have also over the past twenty five years had occasion to make various technically faithful copies of Rembrandts works, in the medium of bitumen and inks as well as chalks. None of this constitutes for me personal mastery. I have always adopted the position that to be a ‘pupil’ is a superior perspective;-) What I point to in this file will mean more to those who have some love and appreciation of the place of fine art, especially the visual arts in the formation of civilizations and a truer civility than that often posted as, being so! As Matisse said of seeing a Giotto fresco: “ When I see it I do not trouble to recognize (RE-COGNIZE;-) which scene of the life of Christ is before me, but I perceive instantly the sentiment which radiates from it and which is instinct in the composition of every line and colour. The title only serves to confirm my impression.” Schama is quoted, “-Rembrandt’s entire career was a dialogue (DIA-LOGUE;-) between outward and inward vision, between the glitter of the hard, unforgiving metallic surface of the world and the vulnerability of mortal flesh, between the vulgar spectacle of Belshazzar’s golden kingdom and his sudden vision (VISION) of its destruction (DESTRUCTION) (dear DP Dash, those words resonate for you;-)

But he though blind of sight, Despis’d and thought extinguish’t quite, With inward eyes illuminated His fiery virtue rous’d From under ashes into sudden flame Milton.

Claus Otto Scharmer in his work (Presencing) based largely upon understandings of and in the phenomenological traditions speaks of the hand being wiser than the (head) brain (mind). Beuys eschewed the gross refinements of art for art markets sakes (sic), wanting an(n)ew art-form but nevertheless asked his pupils to, make things. Asked why? Said, “It will keep you warm!” “In the 1660’s Rembrandt would arrive at a manner (MANNER) of painting that was itself (ITSELF) a kind of outward-inward vision.” [Varela related once how kittens taken blind at birth, strapped to the backs of their siblings never created (CREATED) their own sight, remaining blind, unlike those who carried them who developed normal vision...a lesson for the gurus?] Rembrandt refuted (REFUTED) the hard edged crisply modelled ;-) (CRISPLY MODELLED) sparkling in reflected (REFLECTED) light.

There is in Cleveland Museum of Art a drawing by Rembrandt showing The Healing of the Blind Tobit. (From scriptures) See page two In Scripture Tobias is instructed by an Angel (Raphael) to smear his father’s eyes with fish gall. Rembrandt chooses to show the manipulation of the callous upon the eye, which was probably in fact a cataract, with a needle. For this work it is thought Rembrandt sought the advice of a leading ophthalmic surgeon of the time [Job van Meekeren]. Rembrandt, a man himself of great dextrous skill herein pays homage to the surgeons of visceral vision of his own time.

In the etching I have put here, increasing the magnitude will reveal that the angel figure has been set back with a layer of white wash, ‘spectrally faint’ [Schama]. This is to emphasise his immateriality (nice paradox;-). “-The sense of the guardian angel being a quality of light (QUALITY OF LIGHT) rather than solid matter is at the centre of Rembrandt’s concerns when he turns to the final episode of the Tobit story. The mysterious stranger Azariah reveals himself therein (THERE-IN) as the archangel Raphael and, his mission done, leaves the house ascending in a great burst of radiance.” Now [NOW], There is a late etching, considered the best and most moving by some, among all the etchings on the subject of inward and outward illumination. It is, “Tobit going to Greet Tobias” -- The old man is alone in his kitchen, moving with affecting clumsiness , he shuffles as fast as he can to the door, knocking over the spinning wheel, the emblem of his wife’s long suffering domestic virtue, and colliding with his faithful dog. [[YES; )]] ...It is not enough...For the old blind man moves toward (k)not the half open door we can so plainly see to his right, but toward a collision with his own shadow.

Fellow stumblers ;-)...when I say I will clothe you in flames....do not worry so ;-) Fellow mumblers ;-) “...Listener, learn yourself! And while you proceed through the parts, believe that, even in the smallest, the Creator lies hid.”

Dexterity, then is divinity

(Schama)

What Rembrandt drew and painted were ‘moments of truth’.

My image on page one is only such a ‘moment of truth’. Bury it in your mind’s eye. Know thyself. To know is to see is to know. It is the kernel of my eye, a rose without name from a perfumed garden you’ll never see.

“Rembrandts Eyes is about the painters long journey to singularity”

Simon Schama Dedicated to my friend and artist, At de Lange